(J^'irt-.-C^l^^-^^''  '^"^M--^!L^ 


Our   Debt    to   Cornelius    Harnett. 


AN    ADDRESS    BY 


C.  ALPHONSO  SMITH.   Ph.D.,  LL.D., 

Of  the  University  of  North  Carolina. 


Reprinted  from 
The  University  of  North  Carolina  Magazine,  May,  1 907. 


OUR    DEBT    TO    CORNELIUS     HARNETT.* 

C.  Alphonso   Smith,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 


ON  THE  28th  of  Aprilt,  1781,  there  died  in  the  town  of 
WiJming-ton,  at  theag-e  of  fifty-eig-ht,  a  man  whose 
fame  as  a  civic  leader  finds  a  unique  attestation  in  the  very 
obstacles  that  it  has  had  to  surmount.    Scholar  thoug-h  he 
was,  we  look  in  vain  for  a  book,  a  pamphlet,  or  even  an 
entire  speech  of  his  own  inditing.       If  a  funeral  oration 
was    pronounced    over  him  or  an  obituary  written  about 
him,  neither  has  come  down  to  us.     There  is  not  in  ex- 
istence a  statue  or  even  a   bust  or  picture  of  any  sort   to 
indicate  to  the  eye  what  manner  of  man  he  was.       He 
left  neither  son  nor  daughter   to   perpetuate  his  name  or 
to  plead  with  posterity  for  his  fame.     The  brief  inscrip- 
tion  which  he  asked  to  be  placed  upon  his  modest  tomb 
makes  no  mention  of  any  service,  public  or  private,    that 
he  ever  rendered.     And  yet,  to  one   who  studies  impar- 
tially the  annals  of  this  State  during  the  latter  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  conviction  will  become  irresisti- 
ble that  the  mightiest  single  force  in  North  Carolina  his- 
tory during  the  whole  of    the   Revolutionary  period  was 
Cornelius  Harnett,  of  New  Hanover  County. 

Members  of  the  North  Carolina  Society  of  the  Colonial 
Dames  of  America,  the  honors  of  this  day  are  yours.  In 
behalf  of  the  city  of  Wilmington,  of  the  County  of  New 
Hanover,  of  the  Lower  Cape  Fear  section,  of  the  State  of 

(*)  Au  address  delivered  iu  Wilmington,  N.  C,  May  2,  1907,  at 
the  unveiling  of  the  monument  erected  to  Cornelius  Harnett  by 
the  North  Carolina  Society  of  the  Colonial  Dames  of  America. 

(t)  The  inscription  on  Harnett's  tomb,  "Died  April  20,  1781,"  is 
plainly  incorrect.  His  will,  written  in  his  own  handwriting,  is 
dated  April  28th.  Tradition  has  it  that  he  died  immediately  after 
making  his  will. 


380  University  Magazine. 

North  Carolina,  in  behalf  of  the  spirit  of  liberty  in  what- 
ever breast  it  beats,  I  thank  you  for  your  memorial  to 
the  dead  and  your  incentive  to  the  living-.  This  monu- 
ment marks  a  new  recog-nition  of  Harnett's  services  to 
his  State  and  Nation.  It  means  that  his  fame  enters  to- 
day upon  another  stage  of  its  triumphal  progress.  It 
proclaims  also  that  the  brave  men  who  wrought  with 
him  in  camp  or  council,  the  knighthood  of  the  Lower 
Cape  Fear,  shall  again  be  re-enthroned  and  re-acknowl- 
edged. 

"On  this  greeu  bauk,  by  this  soft  stream, 

We  set  today  a  votive  stone; 
That  memory  may  their  deed  redeem, 

When  like  our  sires,  our  sons  are  gone. 

Spirit  that  made  those  heroes  dare 

To  die,  and  leave  their  children  free, 
Bid  Time  and  Nature  gently  spare 

The  shaft  we  raise  to  them  and  thee." 

11. 

This  is  neither  the  time  nor  the  place  to  enter  upon  a 
detailed  biography  of  Cornelius  Harnett.  Such  a  biog- 
raphy is  made  possible,  however,  by  the  completed  publi- 
cation of  the  Colonial  and  State  Records  of NorthCarolina^  .^ 
There  are  in  these  twenty-six  volumes  more  than  eight 
hundred  references  to  the  activities  of  Cornelius  Harnett. 
A  careful  reading  of  these  references  will  convince  any 
one  that  Harnett  not  only  deserves  to  rank  but  will  yet 
rank  as  a  national  figure  in  the  history  of  the  American 
Revolution.  So  closely  was  he  connected  with  the  Rev- 
olutionary movement,  so  accurately  did  he  typify  its 
spirit  and  purposes,  that  there  would  seem  to  have  been 
a  sort  of  pre-established  harmony  between  the  mind  of 
Cornelius  Harnett  and  the  popular  impulses  of  the  time. 

(*)  "The  best  prmted  records  are  those  of  New  Hampshire,  Mas- 
sachusetts, Connecticut,  Pennsylvania.  Maryland,  and  North  Oa.ro- 
hna."  (Hart's  Amt'rictin  Hislnry  Told  by  (Jonlt'tnijnrarif's,  vol.  II, 
p.  6.) 


Our  Debt  to  Cornelius  Harnett.  381 

If  it  be  true,  as  Browning'  says,  that 

"A  people  is  but  the  attempt  of  mauy 
To  rise  to  the  completer  life  of  one," 

then  Cornelius  Harnett  isdistinctively  the  Revolutionary 
hero  of  North  Carolina. 

Let  me  correct  at  the  outset  the  mistaken  idea  that 
Harnett  was  born  in  Eng-land.  This  view  was  universal 
until  the  Honorable  Georg-e  Davis,  in  an  address  deliv- 
ered at  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  June  8,  1855, 
showed  that  the  historians  had  confused  Harnett  with 
his  father,  Cornelius  Harnett,  Senior,  and  that  the  son 
was  almost  certainly  born  in  Chowan  County,  North  Car- 
olina*. That  he  was  born  in  North  Carolina  and 
probably  in  Edenton,  Chowan  County,  is  plainly  estab- 
lished by  the  following-  extract  from  a  letter  to  Har- 
nett written  by  Governor  Caswell,  September  2,  I777t: 
"We  have  been  alarmed  with  the  rising-  of  Tories 
and  forming  of  conspiracies:  the  former  among-  the 
Hig-hlaxiders  and  Regulators  and  in  the  county  in 
which  you  had  the  honor  to  draw  your  first  breath, 
and  in  Bertie  and  Martin."  He  was  born  April  20, 
1723,  and  was  thus  but  a  few  months  young-er  than 
Samuel  Adams,  of  Massachusetts,  a  name  that  was 
to  be  associated  with  his  in  later  years  by  friend  and  foe. 

The  only  sketch  that  we  have  of  Harnett's  personal  ap- 
pearance is  from  the  pen  of  Archibald  McLaine  Hooper, 
who  was  a  boy  when  Harnett  died  and  who,  as  the 
nephew  of  William  Hooper,  signer  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,    had   many  opportunities    of    seeing"    the 

(*)  LippiiicotCs  Pronouncing  Dictionary  and  Drab'^x  Diciionary  of 
A  nii'vican  Biography  both  say  that  Harnett  was  born  in  England. 
Appleton's  Cyclopcedia  of  American  Biography  (1887)  and  Johnson^a 
Universal  Cyclopaedia  (1894)  say  "born  probably  in  North  Caroli- 
na". The  National  Cyclopaedia  of  American.  Biography  (1897)  and 
the  Biographical  History  of  North  Carolina  (article  by  R.  D.  W. 
Oonnor,  vol.  II,  190l)  add  "probably  in  Chowan  County".  

(t)  Slate  Records  XI,  p.  603? 


382  Universiiv  Mas^azine. 

man  about  whom  he  was  to  write  in  after  years  with 
affection  and  reverence.  "His  stature,"  says  Mr.  Hooper,* 
"was  about  five  feet,  nine  inches.  In  his  person 
he  was  rather  slender  than  stout.  His  hair  was  of 
lig-ht  brown,  and  his  eyes  hazel.  The  contour  of 
his  face  was  not  striking  nor  were  his  features,  which 
were  small,  remarkable  for  symmetry;  but  his  counte- 
nance was  pleasing-,  atid  his  figure,  though  not  com- 
manding, was  neither  inelegant  nor  ungraceful.  Easy 
in  his  manners,  affable,  courteous,  with  a  fine  taste  for 
letters  and  a  genius  for  music,  he  was  always  an  inter- 
esting, sometimes  a  fascinating  companion.  In  conver- 
sation he  was  never  voluble.  The  tongue,  an  unruly 
member  in  most  men.  was  in  him  nicely  regulated  by  a 
sound  and  discriminating  judgment.  He  paid,  never- 
theless, his  full  quota  into  the  common  stock, 
for  what  was  wanting  in  continuity  or  fullness 
of  expression,  was  supplied  by  the  glance  of  his 
eye,  the  movement  of  his  hand,  and  the  impres- 
siveness  of  his  pause.  Occasionally,  too,  he  imparted 
animation  to  discourse  by  a  characteristic  smile  of 
such  peculiar  sweetness  and  benignity  as  enlivened 
every  mind  and  cheered  every  bosom  within  the  sphere 
of  its  radiance.'' 

We  know  comparatively  little  of  the  early  years  of 
Harnett's  life,  but  from  1750  to  his  death  in  1781  he  had 
filled  every  position  of  honor  and  trust  that  a  grateful 
and  devoted  State  could  bestow  upon  him.  Justice  of  the 
peace  for  New  Hanover,  commissioner  for  the  town  of 
Wilmington, member  of  thirteen  colonial  assemblies  under 
royal  authority,  deputy  provincial  grand  master  of  North 
America  in  the  Masonic  order,  chairman  of  the  Wilming- 
ton and  New  Hanover  committees  of  safety,  president  of 
the  provincial  council  of  safety  and  thus  virtually  gov- 
ernor of  North  Carolina,  member  of  the  committee  that 

(*)  See  Life  and  Letters  of  Cornelius  Harnett ^j  Honorable  David 
L.   Swain    {University  Magazine,   vol.  X,   Feb.,    1861,   pp.  335-3y6), 


Our  Debt  lo  Cornelms  Harnett.  383 

drafted  the  first  constitution  of  the  State,  delegate  to  the 
Continental  Con«Tess  at  Philadelphia— these  positions 
he  not  only  filled  but  made  illustrious  by  a  courage, 
ability,  and  integrity  that  constitute  a  priceless  asset  in 
the  history  of  our  State. 

It  is  not  as  an  of&ce-holder,  however,  but  rather  as  a 
leader  of  men  that  Harnett  has  made  his  most  lasting  im- 
press upon  our  Revolutionary  history.  In  crises  that  de- 
manded coolness  of  judgment, quickness  of  action, and  fear- 
lessness of  consequences  the  people  of  the  Lower  Cape 
Fear  and  later  of  the  whole  State  turned  instinctively  to 
Harnett.  There  was  about  this  man  a  certain  master- 
fulness both  in  thought  and  action  that  made  him  natu- 
rally and  inevitably  a  leader.  As  Morley  says  of  Glad- 
stone, ''He  had  none  of  that  detachment,  often  found 
among  superior  minds,  which  we  honor  for  its  disinter- 
estedness even  while  we  lament  its  impotence  in  result." 
•Let  us  glance  now  at  some  of  the  crises  in  North  Caro- 
lina history  and  Harnett's  relation  to  them. 

The  year  1766  was  a  critical  one  in  American  history. 
The  Stamp  Act  had  been  passed  the  year  before  by  the 
British  Parliament,  and  the  royal  governors  in  the  va- 
rious colonies  were  finding  great  difficulty  in  maintain- 
ing their  authority.  Representatives  of  nine  of  the  col- 
onial assemblies  .had  met  in  New  York  to  protest  against 
the  oppressions  of  the  Stamp  Act  and  to  urge  its  repeal. 
North  Carolina  was  not  represented  at  this  meeting  be- 
cause Governor  Tryon,  foreseeing  the  possibility  of 
united  action,  had  refused  to  call  a  meeting  of  the  North 
Carolina  Assembly.  Had  the  other  governors  been 
shrewd  enough  to  take  this  action  there  would  have  been 
no  meeting  in  New  York,  for  the  delegates  to  the  meet- 
ing were  in  every  case  elected  by  their  assemblies.  Let 
us  concede  at  once  that  Tryon  was  one  of  the  ablest  Eng- 
lishmen ever  sent  to  the  colonies.  He  could  accom- 
plish more  by  the  forcefulness  of  his  personality  and  the 
awe  inspired  by  his  mere  presence  than  other  rulers  could 
do  by  edicts  and  armies. 


384  University  Magazine. 

On  the  morning  of  February  21,  1766,  Tryon  had  every 
reason  to  congratulate  himself  on  the  result  of  his 
Stamp  Act  diplomacy  and  to  believe  that  his  next  letter 
to  his  home  government  would  be  a  victorious  recital  of 
difliculties  overcome  and  insubordination  curbed.  But 
he  reckoned  without  his  host.  He  was  now  to  learn  that 
the  House  of  Hanover  with  all  its  prestige  was  no  match 
for  the  patriot  citizens  of  New  Hanover.  The  letter 
which  he  wrote  four  days  later  contained  the  most  hu- 
miliating acknowledgment  of  baffled  pride  and  irredeem- 
able failure  that  Tryon  was  ever  called  upon  to  pen. 
The  letter  follows*: 

"It  was  about  10  o'clock  [February  21,  1766]  when  I 
observed  a  body  of  men  in  arms  from  four  to  five  hun- 
dred move  toward  the  house  ["Castle  Tryon"  in  Bruns- 
wick.] A  detachment  of  sixty  men  came  down  the  ave- 
nue, and  the  main  body  drew  up  in  front  in  sight  and 
within  three  hundred  yards  of  the  house.  Mr.  Harnett, 
a  representative  in  the  Assembly  for  Wilmington,  came 
at  the  head  of  the  detachment  and  sent  a  message  to 
speak  with  Mr.  Pennington  [his  Majesty's  Comptroller]. 
When  he  came  to  the  house  he  told  Mr.  Pennington  the 
gentlemen  wanted  him.  I  answered:  *Mr.  Pennington, 
came  into  ray  house  for  refuge,  he  was  a  Crown  Ofi&cer, 
and  as  such  I  would  give  him  all  the  protection  ray  roof 
and  the  dignity  of  the  character  I  held  in  this  Province 
could  afford  hira.' 

"Mr.  Harnett  hoped  I  would  let  him  go,  as  the  peo- 
ple were  determined  to  take  him  out  of  the  house  if  he 
should  be  longer  detained,  an  insult,  he  said,  they  wish- 
ed to  avoid  offering  to  me.  An  insult,  I  replied,  that 
would  not  tend  to  any  great  consequence  after  they  had 
already  offered  every  insult  they  could  offer,  by  invest- 
ing my  house  and  raaking  me  in  effect  a  prisoner  before 
any  grievance  or  oppression  had  been  first  represented  to 

(*)  From  Tryon's  Lelier  Book,  letter  to  Secretary  Oonway,  Febru- 
ary 35,  1766.     See  Colonial  Records  VII,  pp.  172-174. 


Our  Debt  In  Cornelius  Flarnctt.  385 

me.  Mr.  Penning-ton  jrrew  very  uneasy,  said  he  would 
choose  to  g-o  to  the  g-entlemen.  I  ag-ain  repeated  my 
offers  of  protection,  if  he  chose  to  stay.  He  declared, 
and  desired  I  would  remember,  that  whatever  oaths 
might  be  imposed  upon  him,  he  should  consider  them 
acts  of  compulsion  and  not  of  free  will;  and  further  ad- 
ded that  he  would  rather  resig-n  his  office  than  do  any  act 
contrary  to  his  duty.  If  that  was  his  determination,  I 
told  him  he  had  better  resig-n  before  he  left  me. 

"Mr.  Harnett  interposed,  with  saying-  he  hoped  he 
would  not  do  that.  I  enforced  the  recommendation  for 
resig-nation.  He  consented,  paper  was  broug-ht  and  his 
resig-nation  executed  and  received.  I  then  said:  'Mr. 
Penning-ton,  now,  sir,  you  may  g-o.'  Mr.  Harnett  went 
out  with  him;  the  detachment  retired  to  the  town.  Mr. 
Fenning-ton  afterwards  informed  me  they  g-ot  him  in  the 
midst  of  them  when  Mr.  Ward,  master  of  the  Patience 
asked  him  to  enter  his  sloop.  Mr.  Pennington  assured 
him  he  could  not  as  he  had  resigned  his  office.  He  was 
afterwards  obliged  to  take  an  oath  that  he  would  never 
issue  any  stamped  paper  in  this  province.  The  above 
oath  the  Collector  informed  me  he  was  obliged  to  take, 
as  were  all  the  clerks  of  the  County  Courts  and  other 
public  officers. 

"By  the  last  accounts  I  have  received,  the  number  of 
this  insurrection  amounted  to  580  men  in  arms  and  up- 
wards of  100  unarmed.  The  Mayor  and  Corporation  of 
Wilmington  and  most  of  all  the  gentlemen  and  planters 
of  the  county  of  Brunswick,  New  Hanover,  Duplin,  and 
Bladen,  with  some  masters  of  vessels,  composed  this 
corps." 

Before  this  incident  Harnett  had  been  best  known  as  a 
skillful  financier.  As  far  back  as  December  5,  1759, 
both  houses  of  the  Assembly  had  made  him  chairman,  of 
a  committee  to  "examine,  state,  and  settle  the  public 
accounts  of  this  province."  This  tangled  business  he 
had  unraveled  with  such  dispatch  and    accuracy  that  to 


386  University  Magazine. 

the  day  of  his  death  his  primacy  in  matters  of  finance 
was  never  questioned.  But  after  his  defiance  ot  Tryon 
in  1766 — an  act  performed  ten  years  before  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  and  seven  years  before  the  Boston 
Tea  Party — Harnett  became  in  an  especial  sense  the 
leader  of  his  people  and  the  targfet  of  British  malevo- 
lence and  denunciation.  Every  State  boasts  its  he- 
roes of  the  Stamp  Act,  but  in  all  the  examples  of  resist- 
ance to  this  oppressive  act,  I  find  no  deed  that  equals 
Harnett's  in  its  blend  of  courag^e,  dig-nity,  and  orderli- 
ness. He  and  Tryon  had  looked  each  other  in  the  eyes, 
and  the  eyes  of  the  Eng-lishraanhad  quailed. 

The  year  1771  witnessed  another  crisis  in  North  Caro- 
lina history,  the  uprising-  of  the  Reg-ulators,  culminating 
on  the  16th  of  May  in  the  Battle  of  Alamance.  To  one 
who  stndies  carefully  the  character  of  Harnett  it  occa- 
sions no  surprise  that  he  did  not  sympathize  with  the 
Regulators.  He  had  neither  the  mind  of  a  visionary 
nor  the  temper  of  an  insurrectionist.  He  knew  that  the 
time  was  not  ripe  for  measuring-  swords  with  the  armies 
of  King-  Georg-e.  He  saw  clearly  also  that  the  Regula- 
tors were  held  tog-ether  not  by  the  cohesion  of  principle 
but  merely  by  a  common  hatred  of  governmental  ofi&cials 
and  a  determination  to  wreak  veng-eance  upon  them.  No 
man  felt  more  keenly  than  Harnett  the  difference  between 
libert}'  and  license.  To  his  mind  the  Reg-ulators  were 
playing-  with  fire;  they  were  adopting-  measures  that 
were  neither  remedial  nor  palliative;  they  were  jeop-. 
ardizing-  the  very  existence  of  free  institutions  and  con- 
stituted authority. 

Willing  always  to  back  his  opinions  by  a  generous  ex- 
penditure of  his  means,  Harnett  contributed  more  money 
to  the  anti-Reg-ulator  movement  than  any  other  citizen 
in  the  colony.  At  its  first  meeting  after  the  Battle  of 
Alamance  the  Assembly  voted  unanimously  to  reimburse 
Harnett,     but    refused     to    reimburse     the     Honorable 


Our  Debt  to  Cornelius  Harnett.  387 

Samuel  Cornell.  The  resolution  reads  as  follows*: 
"This  house  cannot  agree  to  the  allowance  proposed 
to  be  made  to  Honorable  Samuel  Cornell,  Esq.,  thoug-h 
thoroug-hly  convinced  of  his  merit  and  activity  in  the 
late  expedition.  The  allowance  to  Mr.  Harnett  was 
made  not  only  because  his  services  entitled  him  to  the 
notice  of  this  house,  but  in  consideration  of  his  not  hav- 
ing- been  in  any  of&ce  or  employment  from  which  he 
could  possibly  derive  any  compensation  for  the  great  ex- 
pense he  was  at  in  that  expedition." 

Harnett's  attitude  toward  the  Reg-ulators  was  not  only 
approved  by  the  Assembly,  but  was  vindicated  by  the 
course  of  events.  When  the  g-reat  Revolution  came,  it 
proved  to  be  in  no  sense  an  outg-rowth  of  the  movement 
started  by  the  Regulators.  Most  of  the  Reg-ulators 
were  Tories  during  the  whole  of  the  Revolutionary  War.f 
That  there  were  good  and  patriotic  men  among-  the 
Reg-ulators  in  1771  no  student  of  our  history  can 
doubt;  that  the  Battle  of  Alamance  served  to  turn 
the  minds  of  thoug-htfulmen  to  the  imminence  of  a  final 
break  with  Eng-land  is  equally  probable.  Our  debt,  how- 
ever, to  Harnett  and  the  other  far-sighted  leaders  of  the 
time  who  rallied  around  him  is  none  the  less  real.  They 
proved  to  the  world  that  the  Revolution  in  North  Caro- 
lina was  to  be  led  by  men  who  knew  as  by  instinct  the 
difference  between  lawlessness  and  self-government,  who 
had  weig-hed  the  questions  at  issue  in    the  scales  of  pure 

(*)  Colonhil  Rf cords  IX,  p.  205. 

(t)  The  Battle  of  Alamance  aad  the  character  of  those  who  took 
part  in  it  will  doubtless  be  discnssed  for  centuries  to  come.  See 
Professor  John  S.  Bassett's  article  on  The  Regulators  of  North  Caro- 
Jina  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Historical  Association 
for  1894,  p  211.  Seealso  Joseph  M.  Morehead's  .Aa77tesi/u?'t<<;r(  1897), 
Haywood's  Goverrtor  Williaiu  Tryon  and  his  AdminiMration  in  the 
Province  of  North  Carolina  (1903),  Waddell's  A  Colonial  Officer  and 
his  Times  (1890),  and  Mrs.  McOorkle'sTFa.s  Alamance  the  First  Bat- 
tle of  the  Revolution f  (in  The  North  Carolina  Booklet,  November, 
1903). 


388  University  Magazine. 

principle,  and  who  ceased  to  be  loyal  to  England  only 
that  tliey^  mig-lit  pledg-e  undying  loyalty  to  the  spirit  of 
liberty. 

Men  were  still  discussing  the  Battle  of  Alamance  when 
in  May,  1775,  tlie  news  came  to  North  Carolina  of  the 
Battle  of  Lexington.  The  times  were  ripe  now  and  the 
whole  province  was  read}^  for  the  impending  conflict. 
Harnett  heard  the  news  on  May  8.  "For  God's  sake," 
he  cried,  "send  the  man  on  without  the  least  delay  and 
write  to  Mr.  Marion  to  forw^ard  it  by  day  and  night." 
During  the  same  month  Mecklenburg  County  draws  up 
the  first  Declaration  of  Independence  and  inscribes  the 
first  date  on  the  flag  of  North  Carolina.  On  the 
16th  of  July,  Governor  Josiah  Martin  begs  his  home  gov- 
ernment to  proscribe  at  least  four  North  Carolinians*: 
"Hearing  of  a  proclamation  of  the  king,  proscrib- 
ing John  ?Iancock  and  Samuel  Adams,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, I  hold  it  my  indispensable  duty  to  mention 
to  your  lordship  Cornelius  Harnett,  John  Ashe,  Rob- 
ert Howe,  and  Abner  Nash  as  persons  who  have 
marked  themselves  out  as  proper  persons  for  such  dis- 
tinction in  this  colony  by  their  unremitting  labours  to 
promote  sedition  and  rebellion  here  from  the  beginnings 
of  the  discontents  in  America  to  this  time;  that  they 
stand  foremost  among  the  patrons  of  revolt  and  anarchy." 
On  the  18th  of  October,  1775,  the  first  meeting  of  the 
new  provincial  council  was  held  at  Johnston  court  house. 
The  council  represented  every  district  of  the  province, 
and  no  abler  body  of  men  had  ever  met  in  North  Caro- 
lina. Bancrof tf,  with  apt  phraseology,  characterizes  three 
of  the  leaders  in  the  council,  but  adds:  "On  none  of  these 
three  did  the  choice  of  president  fall;  that  of&ce  of  peril 
and  power  was  bestowed  unanimously  on  Cornelius  Har- 
nett, whose  disinterested  zeal  had  made  him  honored  as 
the  Samuel    Adams  of  North   Carolina."     This   council 

(*)  Colonml  Records  X,  p.  98. 

(t)  History  of  the   United  States  vol.  VIII,  p.  98. 


Our  Debt  to  Cornelius  Harnett.  389 

was  soon  required  to  sit  continuously.  It  was  called  the 
council  of  safety,  and  Harnett  remained  president  and 
thus  the  chief  executive  of  the  province  until  a  few 
months  of  the  time  when  he  was  sent  as  a  delegate  to 
the  Continental  Cong-ress  at  Philadelphia. 

The  year  1776  opened  ominously  for   North  Carolina. 
The  Scotch  Hig-h landers  in  the  Lower  Cape  Fear  section 
constituted  an  element  of  dang-er.     They   had  raised  the 
royalist  standard  and  under  General  Donald  McDonald,  a 
\K^  hero  of  Cplloden,    were  eager  to  vindicate  the  confidence 

reposed  in  them  by  King-  Georg-e.  Should  the  Highland- 
ers win  their  first  battle,  North  Carolina  would  not  only 
be  overrun  by  English  troops  but  would  be  used  as  a  ra- 
diating center  from  which  devastating  armies  would 
march  into  the  other  Southern  colonies.  Harnett  and  his 
council  were  unremitting  in  their  labors  and  seem  to 
have  had  the  situation  well  in  hand  from  the  start.  With 
•  such  men  as  James  Moore,  Richard  Caswell,  Alexander 
Ivillington,  John  Ashe,  and  James  Kenan  as  leaders  of 
the  colonial  troops,  Harnett  waited  impatiently  but  con- 
fidently for  news  of  the  first  victory  to  be  won  by  Amer- 
ican arms  in  a  pitched  battle  of  the  Revolution.  The 
official  report  of  the  battle  was  sent  by  Caswell  to  "Cor- 
nelius Harnett,  President."  It  is  hardly  probable  that 
Harnett  or  any  of  the  council  had  anticipated  so  deci- 
sive and  glorious  a  victory  as  was  actually  achieved.  At 
Moore's  Creek  Bridge*,  eighteen  miles  northwest  of 
Wilmington,  February  27,  1776,  in  a  battle  lasting 
but  a  few  minutes,  sixteen  hundred  Tories  had  been 
defeated  by  one  thousand  patriots,  the  power  of 
the  Highlanders  had  been  forever  broken,  and  the 
first  stanza  in  the  battle  hymn  of  American  free- 
dom had  been  written  on  North  Carolina  soil  by  the  he- 
roes of  the  Lower  Cape  Fear. 

(*)  See  the  interesting  paper  on  The  Bailie  of  Moore's  C^reek 
Bridge  by  Professor  M.  0.  S.  Noble  in  The  North  Carolina  Booklet, 
March,  1904. 


390  University  Magazine. 

Moore's  Creek  was  the  Rubicon  over  which  North  Car- 
olina passed  to  independence  and  to  constitutional  self- 
g-overnment.  As  far  back  as  April  26,  1774,  William 
Hooper,  of  New  Hanover  County,  in  a  strain  of  prophecy 
antedating-  by  a  year  the  like  anticipations  of  Wash- 
ing-ton and  Jefferson,  had  written  to  James  Iredell* 
that  the  colonies  "are  striding  fast  to  independ- 
ence, and  ere  long  will  build  an  empire  upon  the 
ruins  of  Great  Britain;  will  adopt  its  constitution  purg-ed 
of  its  impurities,  and  from  its  defects  will  g-uard  ag-ainst 
those  evils  which  have  wasted  its  vig-or."  Fortunately 
the  colonies  were  not  destined  to  build  an  empire  "upon 
the  ruins  of  Great  Britain";  but  before  the  close  of  the 
year  1776  North  Carolina,  under  the  lead  of  her  council, 
was  to  fulfill  accuratel}^  all  the  other  terms  of  Hooper's 
remarkable  forecast. 

The  date  of  the  Battle  of  Moore's  Creek  Bridge  is  not 
inscribed  upon  the  flag  of  North  Carolina  but  it  is  re- 
lated to  the  second  date  on  our  flag,  April  12,  1776,  as 
cause  to  effect.  Had  there  been  no  Battle  of  Moore's 
Creek  Bridg-e  or  had  the  battle  resulted  in  a  defeat  for 
the  colonial  troops.  North  Carolina  could  not  so  soon 
have  proclaimed  her  independence.  This  initial  victory 
of  the  Revolution,  won  by  Caswell  and  Lilling-ton,  kin- 
dled the  fires  of  patriotism,  broug-ht  ten  thousand  eager 
soldiers  into  the  field,  sent  Cornwallis  and  Clinton  scur- 
rying- out  of  our  borders,  gave  confidence  to  our  leaders, 
nullified  the  threat  of  Hig-hlander  and  Reg-ulator,  fused 
the  state  into  a  unit  for  independence,  and  thus  made 
possible  and  inevitable  the  proudest  date  in  North  Caro- 
lina history. 

"North  Carolina,"  says  Bancroft!,  "was  the  first  colony 
to  vote  explicit  sanction  to  independence."  Frotliing-hamJ 

(*)  See  p.  38  of  Dr.  E.  A.  Alderman's  eloquent   Address  on  Wil- 
liam Hooper,  delivered  July  4,  1894,  at  the  Guilford  Battle  Ground. 
(t)  Hiatoiy  of  the  United  States,  vol.  VIII,  p.  352. 
(i)  Rise  of  the  Republic  of  tne  United  Stales,  p.  502. 


Our  Debt  io  Cornelius  Harnett.  391 

phrases  it  more  accuratel}-:  "North  CaroUna  was  the 
first  colony  to  act  as  a  unit  in  favor  of  independence." 
But  the  clearest  account  is  g-iven  by  Henry  William  El- 
son.*  "Up  to  April,  1776,"  says  he,  "all  the  talk 
of  independence  had  been  private  talk.  This  showed 
the  drift  of  popular  feeling-,  but  something-  more  must 
be  done  to  achieve  it.  North  Carolina  won  the  honor  of 
being  first  to  make- an  official  move.  On  the  12th  of 
April  that  colony  instructed  its  delegates  in  congress  'to 
concur  with  the  delegates  of  the  other  colonies  in  de- 
claring independendence  and  forming  foreig-n  alliances.' 
This  was  a  move  of  the  g-reatest  importance,  and  it  was 
but  a  short  time  until  Rhode  Island  and  then  Massachu- 
setts followed  the  example  of  their  Southern  sister.  The 
fourth  colony  to  pronounce  for  independence  was  Vir- 
g-inia,  which  went  farther  than  the  others  by  instructing 
its  deleg-ates  to  propose  independence  to  the  Continen- 
tal Congress." 

In  spite  of  these  patent  and  admitted  facts,  Lecky  says, 
in  a  workf  still  lauded  and  quoted  as  an  authority  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic:  "The  Central  and  Southern  Col- 
onies long  hesitated  to  follow  New  England.  Massa- 
chusetts had  thrown  herself  with  fierce  energ-y  into  the 
conflict,  and  soon  drew  the  other  colonies  in  her  wake." 
The  monument  that  we  unveil  today  is  a  monument  not 
only  to  Harnett  and  the  other  heroes  of  the  Lower  Cape 
Fear,  but  to  the  truth  of  history  and  the  duty  of  pre- 
serving and  defending  it. 

Harnett's  share  in  the  achievement  of  April  12  has 
been  ignored  even  by  the  historians  who  concede  most 
freely  the  significance  of  the  date  in  American  history. 
The  convention  met  at  Halifax  on  the  4th  of  April. 
On  the  8th  of  April  it  was  resolved]:,  "That  Mr. 
Harnett,  Mr,    Allen  Jones,  Mr.  Burke,  Mr.  Nash,  Mr. 

(•*)  History  of  the   United  States  of  America,  1904,  p.  853. 
(t)  History  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  yoI.  Ill,  p.  386. 
(t)  Colonial  Records  X,  p.  504. 


392  University  Magazine. 

Kinchen,  Mr.  Thomas  Person,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Jones 
be  a  select  committee  to  take  into  consideration 
the  usurpations  and  violences  attempted  and  com- 
mitted by  the  King-  and  Parliament  of  Britain  agaiust 
America,  and  the  further  measures  to  be  taken  for  frustra- 
ting- the  same,  and  for  the  better  defence  of  this  Province. " 
As  chairman  of  this  select  committee  Harnett  -wrote  the 
famous  report,  and  on  the  12th  of  April  read  it  to  the 
convention.  It  was  immediately  and  unanimously 
adopted. 

In  ringing  sentences,  not  un-worthy  of  Burke  or  Pitt, 
the  report  set  forth  in  a  short  preamble  the  usurpations 
of  the  British  Ministry  and  "the  moderation  hitherto 
manifested  by  the  United  Colonies.'"  Then  came  the 
declaration  which  to  those  who  made  it  meant  long  years 
of  desolating  war,  smoking  homesteads,  wndowed  moth- 
ers, and  fatherless  children,  but  to  us  and  our  descend- 
ants a  heritag-e  of  imperishable  glory:  "Resolved*, 
That  the  delegates  for  this  Colony  in  the  Continen- 
tal Congress  be  empowered  to  concur  with  the  del- 
egates of  the  other  Colonies  in  declaring  Independ- 
ency, and  forming  foreign  alliances,  reserving-  to  this 
Colony  the  sole  and  exclusive  right  of  forming  a 
Constitution  and  laws  for  this  Colony,  and  of  appoint 
ing  delegates  from  time  to  time  (under  the  direction  of 
a  g-eneral  representation  thereof,)  to  meet  the  delegates 
of  the  other  Colonies  for  such  purposes  as  shall  be  here- 
after pointed  out."  Had  Harnett  done  nothing  else  than 
write  these  words,  the  most  memorable  and  far-reaching 
ever  uttered  in  a  state  convention,  he  would  have  amply 
deserved  the  granite  shaft  which  today  we  uncover  to 
his  memory. 

A  few  months  later  the  little  town  of  Halifax  was  to 
witness  another  historic  scene,  Harnett  again  being- 
the  central  figure.  Late  in  Jul}^  the  news  had  come 
that  the  example  of  North  Carolina  had  been  followed 

(*)  Colonial  Records  X,  p,  518. 


Our  Debt  to  Cornelius  Harnatt.  393 

by  all  the  other  colonies,  that  on  the  4th  of  July  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  prepared  by  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson, had  been  adopted  and  signed  by  all  the  delegates 
of  the  thirteen  colonies.  The  council  of  safety  for  North 
Carolina  immediately  resolved*  "That  Tuesday,  the  first 
day  of  August  next,  be  set  apart  for  proclaiming  the 
said  Declaration  at  the  Court  House  in  the  Town  of  Hal- 
ifax". It  is  needless  to  say  that  when  August  1  came, 
no  question  was  raised  as  to  who  should  read  the  great 
document.  There  was  one  man  and  only  one  whose 
name  in  every  hamlet  in  North  Carolina  stood  as  the 
supreme  embodiment  of  independence.  Hardly  four 
months  had  passed  since  he  had  read  his  own  immortal 
declaration,  and  the  declaration  which  he  was  now  to 
read  was  but  the  enactment  by  a  Continental  Congress  of 
what  he  had  proposed  to  a  provincial  congress.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  when  Harnett  concluded  the  reading,  "the 
soldiers  bore  him  on  their  shoulders  through  the  streets 
of  the  town,  applauding  him  as  their  champion  and 
swearing  allegiance  to  the  instrument  he  had  readf". 

The  year  1776  was  to  close  with  another  memorable 
event  which  took  place  also  at  Halifax.  This  was  the 
adoption  on  the  18th  of  December  of  the  first  constitu- 
tion for  North  Carolina.  For  more  than  a  year,  from 
October  18,  1775,  to  December  18,  1776,  the  colony  had 
been  governed  by  the  council  of  safety  with  Cornelius 
Harnett  as  President.  During  all  this  time  no  charge 
was  ever  brought  against  any  member  of  the  council,  no 
protest  was  made  against  any  of  their  decisions,  no 
rivalry  or  intrigue  from  within  marred  the  force  of  their 
authority,  and  no  faction  or  insurrection  from  without 
stayed  the  arm  of  their  power. 

But  the  Continental  Congress  had  urged  the  States  to 
form  constitutions,  many  of  them  had  already  complied, 

{*)L'olonial  Records  X,  p.  688. 

(t)  See  Defence  of  the  Revolutionary  History  of  North  Carolina 
(1834)  by  Joseph  Sea  well  Jones,  and  Colonial  Records  X,  p.  716. 


394  University  Magazine. 

and  the  council  of  safety  for  North  Carolina  had  itself 
broached  the  question  of  a  "temporary  civil  constitu- 
tion*" the  day  after  the  declaration  of  April  12.  The 
convention  at  Halifax  did  its  work  so  well  that  the  con- 
stitution there  formed  continued  in  use  without  the 
slig-htest  chang-e  until  1835. 

Richard  Caswell,  a  native  of  Maryland  but  one  of  the 
heroes  of  Moore's  Creek  Bridg-e,  presided  over  the  con- 
vention and  became  the  first  g-overnor  of  North  Carolina 
under  the  new  constitution.  Harnett  was  vice-president 
of  the  convention  and  was  chosen  first  councilor  of 
state.  What  parts  these  two  leaders  took  in  the  discus- 
sions of  the  convention  it  is  impossible  to  say.  Harnett's 
position  as  vice-president  was  doubtless  designed  to  give 
him  g-reater  freedom  of  debate  and  thus  to  enable  the 
convention  to  draw  upon  his  unequaled  stores  of  civic 
wisdom  and  political  experience. 

Tradition  maintains  that  Harnett  caused  the  insertion 
of  section  XXXIVt:  "That  there  shall  be  no  Establish- 
ment of  any  one  religious  Church  or  Denomination  in 
this  State  in  Preference  to  any  other,  neither  shall  any 
person,  on  any  pretence  whatsoever,  be  compelled  to 
attend  any  Place  of  worship  contrary  to  his  own  faith 
and  Judgment,  or  be  oblig-ed  to  pay  for  the  purchase  of 
any  Glebe,  or  the  building  of  any  House  of  Worship,  or 
for  the  maintenance  of  any  Minister  or  Ministry,  con- 
trary to  what  he  believes  rig-ht,  or  has  voluntarily  and 
personally  engaged  to  perform,  but  all  persons  shall  be 
at  Liberty  to  exercise  their  own  mode  of  Worship."  It 
may  be  remarked  in  this  connection  that  the  Bill  of 
Religious  Freedom,  prepared  by  Jefferson  for  Virginia, 
did  not  pass  until  1799,  and  that  Jefferson  justly  con- 
sidered the  authorship  of  this  Bill  worthy  of  commemo- 
ration on  his  tomb. 

The  most  difficult  task  before  the  constitutional  con- 

(*)  See  t'olo7iial  Records  X,  p.  516. 
(t)  Colonial  Records  X,  p.  1011. 


Our  Debt  to  Cornelms  Harnett.  395 

vention  was  undoubtedlj^  that  of  defining-  the  powers  of 
the  g-overnor.  North  Carolina  had  suffered  under  her 
g-overnors,  both  proprietary  and  royal.  She  was  in  no 
mood  now  to  make  her  chief  executive  a  dictator,  nor 
could  she  ig-nore  the  fact  that  the  exig-encies  of  war 
demanded  a  strong  directive  power  at  the  helm.  Fortu- 
nately there  is  a  bit  of  evidence  that  shows  that  Harnett 
did  more  than  any  one  else  to  settle  this  complicated 
question.  In  a  letter*  written  February  7,  1778,  Gov- 
ernor Caswell  complains  that  his  powers  are  too  limited, 
and  adds  incidentally  that  if  any  one  is  to  blame  for  this 
state  of  things,  that  man  is  Cornelius  Harnett. 

The  new  constitution  was  but  a  few  months  old  when 
in  April,  1777,  Harnett  was  unanimously  elected  a  dele- 
g-ate  to  the  Continental  Congress,  which  was  then  hold- 
ing- its  session  at  York,  twenty-two  miles  southeast  of 
Pittsburg,  and  also  at  Philadelphia.  The  position  of 
deleg-ate  to  the  Continental  Cong-ress  was  considered 
"the  highest  honor  that  a  free  state  can  bestow^f  It 
had  long-  been  a  foreg-one  conclusion  that  Harnett  would 
be  sent  to  the  Continental  Congress,  and  for  this  reason 
the  constitutional  convention  at  Halifax  had  not  pre- 
sented his  name  for  governor.  His  abilities,  his  servi- 
ces, his  national  renown  alike  demanded  that  he  should 
sit  in  the  same  representative  body  with  Samuel  Adams 
of  Massachusetts  and  Thomas  Jefferson  of  Virginia, 
The  opportunity  came  when  William  Hooper  resigned 
his  position  as  delegate.  North  Carolina's  three  dele- 
gates were  then  Cornelius  Harnett,  Thomas  Burke,  and 
John  Penn.;}; 

Harnett's  letters  from  the  Continental  Congress  throw 
an  interesting  side  light  on  his  character.  That  he 
brought  a  truly  national  spirit  to  his  new  duties  is  shown 
by  the  sorrow  and  indignation    with   which   he  notes  in 


(*)  Stale.  Records  XIII  ,  p.  31. 
(t)  Stale.  Records  XI,  p.  827. 
(t)  State  Records  XI,  p.  470. 


396  University  Magazine. 

one  of  his  letters  "the  ridiculous  jealousy  between  North 
and  South*".  He  speaks  of  himself  as  an  old  man  now 
and  longs  to  be  again  in  Wilmington.  His  mind  was 
never  more  active  but  his  body  was  tortured  with  the 
gout.  He  was  inoculated  on  his  way  to  Philadelphia 
and  was  thus  unable  to  attend  the  first  few  meetings  of 
the  Congress  held  after  his  arrival.  The  universal  dread 
of  smallpox  is  indicated  in  a  lettert  that  he  wrote  from 
Philadelphia,  July  20,  1777,  to  his  friend  and  business 
associate,  William  Wilkinson,  Esq.,  of  Wilmington  :  "I 
was  inoculated  at  Port  Tobacco  and  had  the  disorder 
very  favorably.  My  arm  continues  very  sore  and  in- 
flamed, indeed  so  bad  that  I  cannot  wear  a  coat,  and  has 
prevented  my  attending  Congress,  though  I  arrived  here 
the  18th.  Inclosed  is  a  letter  for  Mrs.  Harnett  which  I 
must  beg  the  favor  of  you  to  have  well  smoked  with 
brimstone,  as  she  is  very  fearful  of  the  smallpox.  I  put 
all  my  letters  in  the  sun  for  an  hour  before  I  seal  them, 
and  am  very  certain  the  infection  cannot  be  conveyed  in 
a  letter  so  far,  but  it  is  best  to  be  cautious". 

The  following  letter|  to  Mr.  Wilkinson  carries  its  own 
brimstone.  It  is  written  from  York,  Pennsylvania, 
December  28,  1777:  "Tell  Mrs.  Harnett  (for  I  forgot  to 
mention  it  to  her)  that  two  or  three  gallons  of  pickled 
oysters  would  be  the  greatest  rarity  she  could  send  me. 
I  have  not  tasted  one  since  I  left  home — also  a  few  dried 
fish  of  any  kind,  a  dozen  or  two;  even  if  they  stank  they 
would  be  pleasing.  I  am  heartily  tired  of  eating  the 
flesh  of  four-footed  animals.  We  can  get  very  little 
else  in  this  plentiful  country  that  you  have  so  often 
praised  and  even  bragged  of.  Believe  me  it  is  the  most 
inhospitable  scandalous  place  I  ever  was  in.  If  I  once 
more  can  return  to  my  f  amil}^  all  the  devils  in  hell  shall 
not  separate  us". 

(*)  Hiale  Records  XI,  p.  826. 
(t)  State  Records  XI,  p.  741. 
(t)  State  Records  XI,  p.  887. 


Our  Debt  to  Cornelms  Harnett.  397 

To  Governor  Caswell  he  writes*,  March  20,  1778,  that 
he  does  not  desire  re-appointment  but  adds:  "I  think  it 
is  my  duty  to  serve  my  country  to  the  best  of  my  poor 
abilities,  either  with  or  without  pay".  The  extent  of 
his  financial  sacrifices  is  touched  upon  in  a  letterf  from 
Philadelphia  to  Thomas  Burke,  October  9,  1779:  "I  shall 
return  indebted  to  my  country  at  least  6000  pounds,  and 
you  know  very  well  how  we  lived.  Do  not  mention  this 
complaint  to  any  person.  I  am  content  to  sit  down  with 
this  loss  and  much  more,  if  my  country  requires  it". 

In  the  following  urgent  letter|  to  Thomas  Burke, 
written  December  16,  1777,  the  last  that  I  shall  quote, 
the  characteristic  determination  and  unshaken  confidence 
of  Harnett  stand  clearly  revealed.  His  ruling-  desire 
is  that  North  Carolina  may  prove  worthy  of  the  respon- 
sibility laid  upon  her:  "I  beg  you  will  inform  me  of  the 
temper  you  find  our  Assembly  in.  Are  they  inclined  to 
pursue  spirited  measures?  For  God's  sake  fill  up  your 
battalions,  lay  taxes,  put  a  stop  to  the  sordid  and  avaric- 
ious spirit  which  infected  all  ranks  and  conditions  of 
men.  All  our  foreign  intelligence  indicates  that  Kurope 
will  soon  be  in  a  flame.  Let  us  not  depend  upon  this. 
If  we  have  virtue,  we  certainly  have  power  to  work  out 
our  own  salvation,  I  hope  without  fear  and  trembling". 

In  the  winter  of  1780,  having  signed  the  Articles  of 
Confederation  in  the  summer  of  1778,  Harnett  jour- 
neyed for  the  last  time  back  to  Wilmington.  The  trip 
was  a  severe  one  and  Harnett's  health,  never  very  robust, 
was  ill  able  to  stand  the  strain  to  which  it  was  now  sub- 
jected. The  tide  of  battle  had  turned  southward  and 
Harnett  knew  his  danger.  Every  proclamation  of  Brit- 
ish amnesty  had  expressly  excepted  him  from  its  provis- 
ions, and  when  at  last  Wilmington  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  enemy,  January  29,  1781,  their  every  effort  was  bent 

(*)  State  Records  XIII,  p.  385. 
(+)  State  Records  XIV,  p.  348. 
(t)  State  Records  XI,  p.  696. 


398  University  Magazine. 

toward  his  capture,  Harnett  had  with  him  a  larg-e  sum 
of  money*  for  the  purchase  of  clothing"  and  munitions  of 
war  for  the  North  Carolina  troops.  This  sum  he  man- 
ag-ed  to  convey  beyond  the  reach  of  dang-er  and  would 
himself  have  escaped  had  not  a  paroxysm  of  gfout  ren- 
dered him  helpless.  In  Onslow  County,  thirty-two  miles 
from  Wilmington,  at  the  home  of  his  friend,  Colonel 
Spicer,  he  was  captured  and  carried  at  once  to  Wilming-- 
ton.  His  suffering-s  were  intense,  but  he  is  said  to  have 
declined  the  advice  of  physicians  though  grateful  for 
their  kind  attentions.  The  end  probably  came  on  the 
28th  of  April.  A  few  hours  before  his  death  he  wrote 
his  will  and  dictated acouplet  from  Pope's  Essay  on  Man 
to  serve  as  his  epitaph. 
If  it  be  true  that 

"The  suuset  of  life  gives  us  mystical  lore 
And  coming  events  cast  their  shadows  before", 

let  us  believe  that  though  he  did  not  live  to  see  the  con- 
summation of  his  labors,  there  yet  passed  before  his 
dying  eyes  the  vision  of  a  great  and  g-rateful  common- 
wealth and  that  through  the  vista  of  the  years  he  saw 
himself  acclaimed  as  its  foremost  builder  and  its  most 
illustrious  martyr. 

III.- 

Harnett  had  been  dead  nearly  fifty  years  when  in  1825 
a  book  was  published  in  Boston  entitled  The  Memoi?-  of 
the  Life  of  Josiah  Quincy,  Jiin.,  by  his  son  Josiah  Quincy. 
Jusiah  Quincy,  Jun.,  one  of  the  foremost  orators  and 
patriotsf  of  Boston  during- Revolutionary  times,  was  ad- 
vised by  his  physicians  in  1773  to  make  a  sea  voyag-e  to 
Charleston,    South   Carolina,    for   his   health.     On  his 

(*)  See  Notes  by  Archibald  McLaine  Hooper  in  University  Maga- 
zine, vol.  X,  p.  234  (1861). 

(t)  His  best  known  work  is  his  Ohservations^  mi  the  Act  of  Farlia- 
vient  commonly  caUed  the  Boston  I'ort  Bill  (1774). 


Our  Debt  to  Cornelius  Harnett.  399 

return  trip  he  traveled  throug-h  North  Carolina,  Vir- 
g-inia,  Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York,  making- 
notes  in  his  diary  of  the  most  interesting  persons  and 
things  that  he  saw.  On  the  30th  of  March,  1773,  he 
visited  Wilmington  and  made  the  following  entr}'^  in  his 
diary:  "Dined  with  about  twenty  at  Mr.  William 
Hooper's — find  him  apparently  in  the  Whig  interest, — 
has  taken  their  side  in  the  House — is  caressed  by  the 
Whigs,  and  is  now  passing  his  election  through  the 
influence  of  that  party.  Spent  the  night  at  Mr.  Har- 
nett's, the  Samuel  Adams  of  North  Carolina  (except  in 
point  of  fortnne*).  Robert  Howe,  Esq.,  Harnett,  and 
myself  made  the  social  triumvirate  of  the  evening-.  The 
plan  of  continental  correspondence  highly  relished,  much 
wished   for,  and  resolved  upon  as  proper  to  be  pursued". 

When  this  comparison  was  made  between  Harnett  and 
Adams,  the  latter  was  at  the  height  of  his  fame,  and 
such  was  Quincy's  admiration  for  the  New  Englander 
that  when  dying-  at  sea  (April  26,  1775)  Quincy  was  heard 
to  murmurf:  "I  have  but  one  desire  and  one  prayer, 
that  I  may  live  long  enough  to  have  an  interview  with 
Samuel  Adams  or  Joseph  Warren;  that  g-ranted,  I  shall 
die  content".  Though  Quincy  talked  with  the  leading- 
men  in  all  the  colonies  that  he  visited,  he  nowhere  else 
likens  any  one  to  his  beau-ideal,  Samuel  Adams. 

From  1825,  when  this  tribute  to  Harnett  was  first 
made  public,  the  recognition  of  his  work  has  grown 
steadily  until  the  present  time.  If  it  be  true  that  in 
the  career  of  Harnett  can  be  traced  the  history  of  North 
Carolina  during  the  Revolutionary  period,  it  is  no  less 
true  that  in  the  growing-  recognition  of  Harnett's  servi- 

(*)  Harnett  was  perhaps  the  richest  man  in  North  OaroHiia. 
Adams's  circumstances  were  such  that  when  he  was  sent  as  a  dele- 
gate to  the  first  Continental  Congress  in  Philadelphia  his  friends 
presented  him  with  a  wig,  hat,  coat,  anl  pair  of  shoes  that  he 
might  make  a  creditable  appearance.  See  Hosmer's  Samuel  Adams 
p.  308. 

(t)   Meinuir  p.  345. 


400  University  Magazine, 

ces  may  be  traced  the  deepening  realization  of  our  debt 
not  only  to  him  but  to  all  of  his  co-workers.  I  shall 
mention,  therefore,  in  chronological  order  the  more  note- 
worthy tributes  to  Harnett's  memory,  tributes  that  cul- 
minate today  in  the  permanent  memorial  which  we  have 
just  unveiled. 

In  1834  the  Boston  press  of  Charles  Bowen  published 
the  Defence  of  the  Revolutionary  History  of  North  Car- 
olina by  Joseph  Seawell  Jones.  In  this  work,  which  was 
widely  circulated,  Quincy's  reference  to  his  Wilmington 
visit  was  cited  in  full,  and  Harnett's  services  as  presi- 
dent of  the  council  of  safety  received  a  just  appraisal. 
In  1844,  in  the  Wilmington  Chronicle  for  August  21, 
there  appeared  an  appreciative  memoir  of  Harnett  which 
was  reproduced  in  the  Raleigh  Register  of  August  30 
and  which  gave  Lossing  the  only  material  that  he  had 
for  the  sketch  of  Harnett  in  his  famous  Pictorial  Field 
Book  of  the  Revolution  (volume  II,  1852). 

In  1851  Dr.  Calvin  H.  Wiley  published  in  London, 
from  the  press  of.  Willoughby  and  Company,  a  novel* 
called  The  Adventures  of  Old  Dan  Tucker  and  his 
Son  Walter:  A  Tale  of  North  Carolina.  It  is  a  Revo- 
lutionary story  and  went  through  several  editions,  Har- 
nett figuring  as  one  of  the  characters.  "Here  at  all 
times,"  says  Dr.  Wiley,  speaking  of  the  Lower  Cape 
Fear,  "have  lived  some  of  the  brightest  ornaments  of 
the  State;  and  in  the  Revolution  there  were  men  who 
would  have  been  giants  anywhere.  Cornelius  Harnett, 
who  was  one  of  the  guests  of  Col.  Ashe,  cut  a  distin- 
guished figure  in  the  councils  of  North  Carolina  during 
the  war  of  the  Revolution.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  for- 
tune and  education,  fitted  by  nature  and  study  to  shine 
in  any  society;  and  yet,  fond  of  retirement,  modest  and 
unceremonious,  he  was  not  conspicuous  except  in  troub- 
lous times,  and  then  he  was  the  master-spirit". 

(*)  The  story  was  begun  in  Sartain's  Union  Magazine,  Philadel- 
phia, March,  1849. 


Our  Debt  to  Cornclitis  Harnett.  401 

During  the  same  year  the  first  volume  of  Wheeler's 
History  of  North  Carolina  called  attention  to  the  need 
of  a  biog-raphy  of  Harnett.  "It  is  a  matter  of  deep  re- 
gret," says  the  author,  "that  more  of  the  history  of  this 
distinguished  man,  whose  life  was  offered  up  to  his 
country,  is  not  known.  It  is  hoped  that  this  feeble 
notice  [it  is  full  of  errors]  will  excite  some  friend  of  the 
State  to  collect  and  collate  the  full  biography  of  this 
worthy  citizen.  Last  Session  of  our  General  Assembly 
a  proposition  was  made  to  name  a  county  Harnett".  In 
1854,  however,  the  motion  which,  from  ignorance  of 
North  Carolina  history,  failed  to  pass  in  1851  was  car- 
ried unanimously,  and  Harnett  County,  with  the  appro- 
priate name  of  Lillington  for  its  county  seat,  marked 
the  first  recognition  by  the  State  at  large  of  its  indebt- 
edness to  the  hero  of  the  Lower  Cape  Fear. 

The  year  1855  witnessed  a  greatly  increased  interest 
in  Harnett.  The  Wilmington  Historical  Society  determ- 
ined to  erect  suitable  monuments*  not  only  to  Harnett 
but  to  Lillington,  Moore,  and  Howe — a  determination 
which,  however,  was  not  carried  out.  Mr.  Griffith 
McRee,  of  Wilmington,  contributed  to  the  Wilmington 
Daily  Herald  a  eulogy  of  Harnett,  which  was  copied  in 
the  April  number  of  the  University  Magazine.  The 
annual  address  before  the  literary  societies  of  the  Uni- 
versity was  delivered,  June  8,  by  the  Hon.  George  Davis, 
of  Wilmington,  his  topic  being  A  Sketch  of  the  Early 
Times  and  Men  of  the  Loxver  Cafe  Fear.  "There  was 
one",  said  the  speaker,  "who  shone  like  a  star  in  the 
early  troubles  of  the  State,  of  pure  and  exalted  charac- 
ter, of  unsurpassed  influence  with  his  countrymen,  and 
the  value  of  whose  services  was  only  equalled  by  the 
extent  of  his  sufferings  and  sacrifices  in  the  cause  of 
liberty.  And  yet  so  little  is  he  known  that  I  doubt  not, 
gentlemen,  many  of  you  have  not  even  so  much  as  heard 
his  name.     I    speak   of    Cornelius  Harnett,  the  pride  of 

(*)  See  Univfrsity  Magazine  vol.  IV,  p.  136,  (1855). 


402  University  Magazine. 

the  Cape  Fear,  the  Samuel  Adams  of  North  Carolina". 
Extracts  from  this  eloquent  address  were  afterwards  sent 
to  all  the  public  schools  in  the  State  to  be  used  in  the 
celebration  of  North  Carolina  day,  December  18,  1903. 

In  1861  the  Hon,  David  L.  Swain,  President  of  the 
University  of  North  Carolina,  published  in  the  Univer- 
sity Magazine  for  February  a  study  of  The  Life  and  Let- 
ters of  Cornelius  Harnett.  In  this  article  President 
Swain  quotes  liberally  from  the  Hon.  Georg-e  Davis's 
address  but  adds  little  of  his  own.  The  article  owes 
its  chief  value,  however,  to  the  part  contributed  by 
Archibald  McLaine  Hooper.  His  manuscript  entitled 
Notes  Relative  to  Cornelius  Harnett  had  come  into  the 
possession  of  President  Swain  and  was  now  published 
for  the  first  time.  As  Hooper  in  his  boyhood  knew  Har- 
nett, the  Notes  are  of  g-reat  value,  thoug-h  some  of  the 
statements,  especially  in  reg-ard  to  Harnett's  religious 
beliefs*,  must  be  accepted  with  reservation. 

(*)  Utterly  unwarranted  inferences  have  been  drawn  from  the 
couplet  which  Harnett  asked  to  be  placed  on  his  tomb — 

"Slave  to  no  sect,  he  took  no  private  road, 

But  looked  through  Nature  up  to  Nature's  God". 

(^.s.vay/   on    Man,  Epistle  IV,  lines  331-332. 

The  whole  passage,  one  of  the  most  splendid  in  eighteenth  century 
literature,  is  as  follows: 

"See  the  sole  bliss  Heav'u  could  on  all  bestow! 
Which  who  but  feels  can  taste,  but  thinks  can  know: 
Yet  poor  with  fortune,  and  with  learning  blind, 
The  bad  must  miss;  the  good,  untaught,  will  find; 
Slave  to  no  sect,  who  takes  no  private  road. 
But  looks  through  Nature  up  to  Nature's  God; 
Pursues  that  Chain  which  links  th'  immense  design, 
Joins  Heav'n  and  earth,  and  mortal  and  divine; 
Sees  that  no  Being  any  bliss  can  know, 
But  touches  some  above,  and  some  below; 
Learns,  from  this  union  of  the  rising  Whole, 
The  first,  last  purpose  of  the  hmnan  soul; 
And  knows,  where  Faith,  Law,  Morals,  all  began. 
All  end  in  Love  of  God  and  Love  of  Man." 


Our  Debt  to  Cornelius  Harnett.  403 

In  1872  Richard  Frothing-ham,  the  New  England  his- 
torian and  journalist,  published  his  well-known  Rise  of 
the  Republic  of  the  United  States.  This  work  was  based 
on  a  study  of  original  sources  and  is  quoted  by  histori- 
ans as  the  most  authoritative  treatment  of  its  subject 
yet  published.  Frothingham,  as  we  have  seen,  concedes 
the  priority  of  North  Carolina  in  voting  for  independ- 
ence and  adds  that  among  the  North  Carolina  leaders 
"Harnett  was  the  foremost  actor  in  the  movement  for 
independence". 

On  the  3rd  of  February,  1890,  Colonel  James  G.  Burr, 
of  Wilmington,  a  man  of  antiquarian  tastes  and  schol- 
arly attainments,  delivered  in  the  opera  house  of  this 
city  an  address  on  The  Old  Churchyard  of  St.  fajnes. 
This  address  was  given  wide  circulation  by  being  repub- 
lished in  the  James  Sprunt  Historical  Monograph*  No.  4 
(1904).  As  Colonel  Burr  was  born  in  Wilmington,  in 
1818,  and  had  the  privilege  in  his  early  years  of  con- 
versing with  men  who  had  known  Harnett  personally, 
his  account  of  Harnett's  capture  is  practically  that  of 
an  eye-witness,  and  his  estimate  of  Harnett's  services  may 
be  said  to  reflect  the  opinions  of  many  of  Harnett's  con- 
temporaries :  "While  lying  sick  at  the  house  of  a  friend 
on  the  New  Berne  road  he  was  captured  b}^  a  party  sent 
out  by  Major  Craig,  the  British  Commandant  of  the 
town.  His  merciless  captors  compelled  him  to  walk  until 
he  sank  to  the  ground  from  utter  exhaustion.  Then 
they  threw  him  like  a  sack  of  meal  across  the  back  of  a 
horse  and  thus  brought  him  into  Wilmington.  The 
effect  of  such  treatment  upon  a  system  enfeebled  by  dis- 
ease could  have  no  other  than  a  fatal  termination.  He 
sank  under  it,  and  the  old  churchyard  of  St.  James  con- 
tains all  that  was  mortal  of  the  first  scholar,  statesman, 
and  patriot  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived." 

In  1903  Mr.  R.  D.  W.  Connor,  Secretary  of  the  North 
Carolina  Historical    Commission,  contributed  a  series  of 

(*)  Issued  by  the  press  of  the  University  of  North  Oaxoliaa. 


404  University  Magazine. 

articles  on  Harnett  to  the  Charlotte  Observer^.  These 
articles  bore  further  fruit  in  the  sketches  of  Harnett  which 
Mr.  Connor  published  in  The  Biographical  History  of 
North  Carolina  (vol.  U,  1905)  and  in  The  North  Carolina 
Booklet  for  January,  1906.  It  was  also  in  1903  that  Hon- 
orable Thomas  E.  Watson,  of  Georg-ia,  published  his 
Life  and  Times  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  In  speaking-  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  written  by  Jefferson, 
Mr.  Watson  says:  "Already  Cornelius  Harnett  had  led 
the  way  to  Independence  in  North  Carolina.  The  fact 
that  North  Carolina  had  given  the  first  tap  to  the  drum 
in  the  grand  march  of  Independence  was,  indeed,  long 
disputed;  and  the  name  of  Cornelius  Harnett  was  un- 
known to  historians.  He  was  serving  as  president  of  a 
Revolutionary  government  in  October,  1775." 

Ten  days  ago  Dr.  John  Lesslie  Hall,  of  the  College  of 
William  and  Mary,  published  his  Half-Hours  in  South- 
ern History\.  In  this  book  he  speaks  of  Harnett  as  fol- 
lows: 

"Not  all  the  heroes  can  serve  on  the  field  of  battle. 
Among  civic  heroes  and  martyrs,  Cornelius  Harnett, 
called  by  Josiah  Quincy  'the  Samuel  Adams  of  North 
Carolina',  stands  pre-eminent.  He  made  his  first  repu- 
tation as  an  opponent  of  the  Stamp  Act;  then  he  served 
on  the  Intercolonial  Committee  of  Correspondence;  sat 
in  the  Provincial  Congress  of  North  Carolina;  was  for 
a  while  acting-governor  of  the  State;  exerted  great 
influence  in  inducing  North  Carolina  to  declare  for  inde- 
pendence; was  branded  by  Sir  Henry  Clinton  as  a  rebel 
beyond  the  pale  of  forgiveness.  On  July  25,  1776,  after 
he  had  read  the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  a  great 
throng  at  Halifax  they  bore  him   on    their  shoulders  in 

(*)  See  issues  of  January  4  and  18,  February  1  and  15,  March  8, 
April  6,  May  11,  June  21  and  28,  July  26,  August  9  and  30,  Septem- 
ber 13,  October  25,  November  22,  aud  December  10. 

(t)  From  the  press  of  the  B.  F.  Johnson  Publishing  Co.,  Rich- 
mond. 


Our  Debt  to  Cornelius  Harnett.  405 

triumph  throug-h  the  town.  In  the  drafting-  of  the  State 
Constitution  in  1776,  he  became  the  father  of  religious 
liberty  in  North  Carolina.  He  fearlessly  dared  the  dun- 
g-eon and  the  scaffold.  When  the  British  captured  the 
Cape  Fear  region,  Harnett  was  thrown  into  prison,  and 
died  in  captivity." 

IV. 

Though  these  tributes  to  Harnett  show  that  he  has 
not  been  forgotten,  they  show  also  that  his  name  does 
not  appear  in  the  American  Statesmen  Series,  the  Amer- 
ican Men  of  Energ-y  Series,  the  American  Crises  Biog-- 
raphies,  or  in  any  other  series  of  historic  lives.  He  is 
mentioned  here  and  there  by  special  investigators  in  Rev- 
olutionary history  but  his  name  is  not  to  be  found  in  the 
index  to  any  recent  history  of  the  United  States.  That 
he  deserves  a  place  in  United  States  history  and  in 
American  biography  is  proved  by  the  mere  recital  of 
what  ke  did.  The  omission  is  not  due  to  Northern 
prejudice  or  insularity  but  to  the  fact  that  no  North 
Carolinian  has  yet  written  a  life  of  Harnett.  It  is  not  to 
our  credit  that  the  hope  expressed  by  Wheeler  more  than 
a  half  century  ago  in  the  first  volume  of  his  History  of 
North  Carolina  remains  as  yet  unfulfilled.  If  the  Rev- 
olutionary history  of  North  Carolina  is  ever  to  be  given 
its  meed  of  recognition  by  American  historians,  that 
history  must  be  woven  about  the  lives  of  our  Revolu- 
tionary heroes. 

Two  weeks  ago  the  last  volume  of  the  Colonial  and 
State  Records  of  North  Carolina  came  from  the  press. 
These  volumes  have  received  the  unstinted  praise  of 
every  school  of  historians.  North  and  South.  The  first 
duty  that  we  now  owe  to  Harnett  is  to  see  that  his  life  is 
adequately  written.  He  must  be  portrayed  not  merely  as  a 
North  Carolinian  but  as  an  American,  and  documentary 
evidence  must  be  cited  rather  than  individual  opinion. 
When   this   is  done,  Harnett   will  rank  as  one  of  the 


406  University  Magazine. 

national  figures  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  the 
history  of  North  Carolina  will  no  longer  seem  an  iso- 
lated fragment  but  an  organic  part  of  a  larger  whole. 

One  other  thought  in  conclusion:  It  is  not  the  pains- 
taking biographer  alone  who  contributes  to  history. 
The  finer  work  of  giving  color,  coherence,  and  vitality 
must  come  from  the  literary  artist.  Formal  biographies 
and  text-books  of  history  can  never  carry  as  far  as  his- 
tory translated  into  literature.  Samuel  Adams  is  not 
more  widel}^  known  than  Paul  Revere.  Marlborough 
said  that  he  learned  all  of  his  English  history  from  the 
dramas  of  Shakes]  eare.  The  world  knows  Scottish  his- 
tory not  from  Burton's  learned  volumes  but  from  the 
pages  of  Walter  Scott  and  Robert  Burns. 

"And  what  for  this  frail  world,  were  all 

That  mortals  do  or  suffer, 
Did  no  responsive  harp,  no  pen, 

Memorial  tribute  offer?" 

The  historian  may  galvanize  the  past,  but  the  poet 
vitalizes  it.  Enshrine  history  in  literature  and  you  give 
it  both  currency  and  permanency. 

The  most  suggestive  thought  in  Rostand's  DAiglon 
is  that  expressed  by  an  old  soldier  in  speaking  of  his 
dead  commander.  Napoleon  Bonaparte  : 

"C'est  main  tenant  qu'il  fait  ses  plus  belles  conquetes: 
II  n'a  plus  de  soldats,  maisil  a  les  poetes. " 

In  a  recent  address*,  the  Honorable  Henry  Sherman 
Boutell  used  the  following  striking  words:  "Poets  make 
many  of  our  national  heroes;  and  Massachusetts,  my 
native  State,  has  furnished  the  nation  with  most  of  our 
Revolutionary  heroes;  not  because  North  Carolina  and 
the  other  States  of  the  Old  Thirteen  had  no  heroes,  but 
because  Massachusetts  had  the  poets." 

But  Massachusetts  did  not  always  have  the  poets. 
When  Rufus  Choate  in  1833  made  his  memorable  appealt 

(*)  Delivered  at  the  University  of  North  Oarolina,  May  31,  1905. 
(t)  See  OU  South  Leaflets  No.  110. 


Our  Debt  to  Cornelius  Harnett.  407 

for  the  illustration  of  New  Eng-land  history  by  a  series 
of  poems  and  romances,  the  outlook  was  far  from  encour- 
ag-ing-.  New  England  had  then  no  distinctive  literature; 
nor  had  a  single  poet  or  prose-writer  touched  with  the 
wand  of  his  genius  any  event  or  locality  in  New  England 
history.  But  in  less  than  ten  years  from  the  time  of  Mr. 
Choate's  address  Emerson  had  written  his  great  Concord 
Hymn  and  Hawthorne  his  Twice-Told  Tales.  The 
movement  was  now  on,  and  in  rapid  succession.  Mosses 
fi'om  an  Old  Manse,  The  Scarlet  Letter.,  The  House  of 
the  Seven  Gables,  The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish,  and 
Paul  Revere's  Ride  completed  a  cycle  that  has  done 
more  to  popularize  the  history  of  Massachusetts  than  all 
the  historians  from  William  Bradford  to  John  Fiske. 

We  hear  much  today  of  North  Carolina's  undeveloped 
resources, —of  her  hidden  ores,  her  tumbling  waters,  and 
her  unscarred  forests.  But  greater  than  all  these,  more 
potent  by  far  in  their  message  to  heart  and  brain,  are 
the  resources  of  a  history  rich  in  romantic  appeal  and 
resplendent  in  civic  heroisms.  These  are  the  undevel- 
oped resources  that  are  waiting  to  become  a  part  of  the 
spiritual  heritage  of  every  child  born  within  our  bor- 
ders. 

There  may  be  listening  to  me  today  some  man  or 
woman,  some  boy  or  girl,  whose  heart  Almighty  God  has 
dowered  with 

"The  light  that  never  was,  on  sea  or  land, 
The  consecration  and  the  poet's  dream", 

and  who  will  yet  transmute  the  base  metal  of  our  his- 
tory into  the  pure  gold  of  poetry  and  romance.  If  my 
voice  could  reach  into  every  home  and  schoolroom  in 
North  Carolina,  I  would  say.  There  is  no  higher  call  than 
this,  no  opportunitj'  for  service  more  exalted  and  benefi- 
cent. When  our  history  shall  have  been  thus  written, 
the  heroes  of  the  Lower  Cape  Fear  will  rise  to  a  new 
immortality;  they  will  have  become  a  part  of  a  nation's 


408  University  Magazine. 

song-  and  story;  they  will  have  joined  the  choir  invisible 

"Of  those  immortal  dead  who  live  again 
In  minds  made  better  by  their  presence"  ; 

and  the  monument  which  we  unveil  today  will  be  a  mon- 
ument not  to  the  dead  but  to  the  ever  living-  and  the  ever 
loved. 


